Slow and subtle changes
I've been reflecting a lot lately on how my life is subtly and slowly changing as Bobbin continues to grow and learn. There's nothing significant, but every now and then sometime will pop up and make me stop and think "wow... this is getting a little bit easier. 3/6/9/12/24 months ago this was not even a remote possibility". And I figure I better take some time to acknowledge them now, because sometime quite soon - about the time she starts real school, I suspect - it will stop getting easier and will get much harder again. And from then on it will continue to get harder until she's made it through her mid-20's at the very least ;-)
There's the material kinda stuff. like... we don't have to spend money on diapers and wipes. We still buy pullups but she only wears one per day (at bedtime). It's amazing how long a package of 32 pullups lasts when you're only wearing one per day. Like, a whole month! :-). She's not growing quite as rapidly which means we're not having to replace her wardrobe every 3 months because nothing fits. Stuff lasts longer before having to be replaced. Except for her shoes. She goes through shoes like I've never seen, just due to the sheer volume of activity that takes place while she's wearing them :-)
There's physical space kinda stuff. Like - getting rid of the changing table and changing pad. And not having as many bottles around. And freeing up space in the cupboard that was formerly occupied by sippy cups now that Bobbin insists at all meals on drinking from a regular cup. And not having to carry around an entire day's worth of diapers and at least one complete change of clothes and several baggies of snacks in my purse or backpack for outings on the weekend. Or having to lug a stroller around in the back of the car. We have a much much much lighter load these days. I don't even bring her portable potty seat anymore because she's content to sit on the big-people toilet when out in public.
There's freedom kinda stuff. Like - I can actually clean the entire kitchen properly and thoroughly and unload and load the dishwasher while Bobbin happily entertains herself in the other room; she'll start her own activities and then move on to her next activity completely on her own - colouring, and then playing with her doll house, and then building a tower of blocks, and then playing her piano, and then taking her baby for a walk in the stroller and then painting a picture on her easel. She'll happily sing and talk to herself as she plays her games or pursues her arts unsupervised and I'll happily putter in the kitchen reveling in the fact that my socks are no longer constantly sticking to the floor and that I can actually see the bottom of my sink for lack of piles of dishes (and it's actually clean too). Or I can putter around in the deck while Bobbin happily romps in the grass and plays on her climber and slide. I don't always have to be right there and interacting constantly 100% of the time.
There's self-sufficient kinda stuff. Like - she can get up and down on our dining room chairs by herself now that she's taller; she'll push her learning tower into position and climb into it by herself; she's even started going to the potty by herself (ie, not requiring my actual accompaniment). She can reach the light switches now and will turn lights on and off on her own too.
There's conversational kinda stuff. Like - she'll tell me that she had a great day at school today because Zachary is back from vacation and she got to play with him all day and Miss Kiera wasn't sick today and was back at school and that made her really happy. we have lengthly meaningful conversations about what happened, and how we're feeling and what we're doing, what we've done, and what we're going to do, what we like and don't like and why and what makes us feel certain ways. We talk about things we remember, and things that haven't happened yet. And it's completely two-way.
There's diagnostic stuff. Like - she can tell me what hurts and where it hurts and how it hurts, in great detail so that there's less guesswork involved in figuring out what's wrong.
There's safety stuff. Like - I don't feel the need to hover over her when she goes up and down the living room steps, or goes to the bathroom to climb up on her stepstool to wash her hands, nor the need to be there to physically supervise door and drawer opening and closing to avoid pinched fingers. She's mastered this stuff now.
There's aesthetic stuff - we've been able to completely remove the bumpers from our tables and cabinets because she doesn't bump into this stuff anymore.
There's efficiency stuff. Like I don't have to spend as much time cutting her food into as tiny pieces for risk of choking because she's physically bigger and much more coordinated and capable of eat normal sized bites of food (and ever since her pepperoni incident at D&B's several months ago, has exercised much better judgement in terms of how big "bite size" is :-)). There's slightly less laundry as Bobbin has fewer and fewer potty accidents at school. going to the store or a restaurant doesn't require a lot of prep work packing snacks, refilling diapers and travel wipe containers. Now we decide we want to go somewhere and we just go. Of course, I have gotten more efficient at the stuff I do still have to do. I have a stash of snack-sized bags of cheese crackers and a 12-pack of bottled water in the trunk at all times, along with a ziploc baggie containing a pair of clean underwear and clean pants (for her... duh!).
There's creative stuff. Like she LOVES arts and crafts and actual games, and make believe, and is quite elaborate in all of her pretend play which makes it so much more fun for me. Not that it hasn't always been fun, but I actually feel even more intellectually and creatively stimulated than the really tiny baby days when it was fairly one-sided. She's so much more coordinated and capable of following complicated instructions so stuff like sports, tricycle riding, and even just going for nice long walks on the burke-gilman are much more fun.
None of it is big stuff; none of it happened overnight. But my goodness how far we've all come!
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